The FOUNDATION
Purpose for a new year - #3 of 4
Jerry Watts
1 Corinthians 3:9-15
• Today, I begin with a question that is personal as well as collective. Here it is; what type of foundation are you building your life on & are we building this fellowship on? This is important.
• The purpose of the foundation is to make strong, secure, and safe. We should know about foundations because we have a slab ‘cracking’ in our office building. When we changed the offices around, all of us saw it but didn’t really do anything about it. Today, we have notices bricks separating in 2 direction & honestly, if left unchecked it will have disastrous effects.
• Our text today teaches us about foundation. A solid foundation is vital. In construction, you cannot build up until you go down & find solid ground. In sports, you cannot build a winning team until you have a strong foundation of fundamentals. In life, foundation is essential! Life WILL (not might) bring disappointments, heartaches, & heartbreaks, and when these come, without a strong, stable, & solid foundation you will find yourself at the mercy of the world. And the world is merciless.
• In our text, please notice two things; a) that the entirety of this text has the feel of construction and b) how many times the word foundation appears in our text. By my count, at least 4 times. What we know is foundation is the key to anything.
• During this series of messages, we have been talking about things like purpose, mission, and vision. These constitutes the foundation of all we do.
• We learn this from Jesus. He lived according to his purpose, everything he did pointed to one mission, and to one vision. He was driven, compelled, and obsessed with the salvation of man & the building of His church.
• Last Sunday night, those of us here, (another message, but it may be time for an examination of ourselves and the church – at what point in our lives did we decide that we can pick & choose when we will be faithful to the Church of Jesus?) heard the message from Matthew 16 which was Jesus’ clarion call. Jesus said, “I will build my gates, and that church will be so strong & aggressive that the very gates of hell cannot & will not withstand the assault. Furthermore, my church will possess the very “Keys” to earth, heaven, death, & life.”
• Do you know how Jesus could make such a bold statement? Because He is the foundation of our faith, the author, the finisher (completer); He is the rock we can build our lives & church upon. I ask today, “What is your foundation?” I could begin with decision. Consider 4 thoughts with me.
1) THE DESIGN – When I read this scripture, as far as I can tell, there are only two foundational designs mentioned here. One is a firm foundation & the other is a flawed foundation. In construction, to have a flawed foundation means the building will not stand. You can put the most expensive material, build the most intricate walls, use state of the art methods, but none of these will overcome a flawed foundation. While the building may stand for a while, inevitably the structure will fall because the foundation is compromised. Consider a couple of thoughts.
• First, the scripture tells us that we can build our lives & this church on a foundation of ‘wood, hay, & stubble.’ What exactly does this mean and how exactly does one build this kind of foundation? Actually, you have to do nothing. This means we do like we want instead of worrying about what He wants. It seems that it’s easy for Christ followers to get into a mode of “my desires & my preferences.” In fact, this is so prevalent that, you’ll remember, Thom Rainer included in his book “I am a Church Member” a covenant phrase which said, “I will not let my church be about my preferences and desires.” When we make the Church about US, we use the material of wood, hay, & stubble to manufacture a foundation & that is easily compromised.
• On the other side of the coin, we can build our lives and church on the foundation (vs 12) gold, silver, & precious stones. How do we do this? There is a two-fold answer here.
• When I think of the church’s firm foundation, I am reminded of that great hymn of faith which says, “The Church’s one foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord.” As a church we must build on the only firm foundation of Jesus which is found in the Great Command & Commission.
• When we see the church as belonging to Christ, through the spiritual eyes of our soul, our vision for the church changes because we understand the foundation & the structure. Too many churches & church members see the church as the one place they can speak their mind, demand their way, and apply pressure until they get what they want. And too often, the response is to acquiesce (for the sake of peace or trying to be “Christian”) and do you know what the result is when you try to please everybody? You wind up compromising your beliefs &, in reality, you please nobody. And of those we displease, our Lord tops the list.
• The design of the firm foundation is indeed a foundation which is built from the right stuff. Our text calls it gold, silver, & precious metals; so let me give you some practical materials. His precious metals in this life are love, hope, grace, mercy, His word (which is the gospel), and then we build on that foundation by discovering His purpose for life & the church.
• We (that is you, me, this church) should be known as people who show love, share hope, offer grace, extend mercy, & communicate His word (gospel), because we know this is His purpose.
• Every person who knows Christ & every Church who claims the name of Christ should put to memory & to practice the Great Command & Great Commission until everyone knows the reason for the hope we have. This is the divine design for our foundation.
• This means that every activity we plan as a church, every action (work) that we carry out in our lives, & every word we speak should be given in such a way as to bring someone closer to Him.
2) THE DEFECT - It is my observation that this passage, while inspiring us to build on the firm foundation of Jesus also offers us a caution, a warning about building on a defective foundation. A defective foundation is a dangerous place to live. Personally, I can almost hear Paul saying, ‘be careful, because a defective foundation will result in destruction.’ I never read this text without my mind drifting back to the Sermon on the Mount. As Jesus was finishing His inaugural sermon, He told the story of the wise man & the foolish man. The wise man built his house on the firm foundation of the rock while the foolish man built his house on the defective, flawed foundation of the sand. Let me tell you about my first encounter with the sand. I was in college, playing the piano for a quartet. We went to sing in Florida and I met this girl. She had a hot car! After the Sunday night service, she and I and a couple jumped in the car and headed to Pensacola Beach. I had never been down to Pensacola Beach so I didn’t know the rule that when you pull off on the side of the road – you have about 12’ of hard ground & then you get into the SAND. I pulled off the road too far, we got out and walked up & down the beach. The night was beautiful, she and I walked & talked about the water, moon, & stars. We had a great time. Then we got back in the car EXPECTING to go to the house. Guess what? We were in the sand & going down. Graham & I got out and literally moved the car back to solid ground.
• The gist of the story was that the storms came to the houses of both men. The one on the firm foundation stood firm while the one on the sand was destroyed. Sand offers nothing but death.
• Let’s apply this story: The house represents your life. Every day, you are building the edifice in which you will live. Everyone I know wants this house to be safe, comfortable, happy, & secure. The rock & the sand (foundation) speaks to the very core of who we are. EVERYBODY IS NOT THE SAME! Some choose man’s way - “There is a way that seems right, but the end is death.”
• Other’s choose Jesus. When you choose Jesus, you choose to trust the one who has defeated death, won the victory over the grave, can forgive sin, and make you right with God the Father. But that choice also places you in His Kingdom, His family, & His army. This has special meaning.
• We’ll come back to that thought in a minute as we finish, but it’s important that we know of one other way that our foundation can be defective. It’s not just about the materials found in a firm foundation, but it is also how you mix those materials together. For instance, if you’re pouring concrete & you add too much water or too much mix or you choose to use or not use – rebar, all these affect the strength of your foundation.
• Things like your salvation, prayer, Bible reading, witnessing, and Holy Spirit’s work are ingredients in your foundation which you can misuse to weaken your foundation. For instance, you only read your Bible and pray when things are going bad or when the church is in special emphasis – and then wonder why it seems God doesn’t hear you. Or you live, act & talk like you want, and when you try to invite your neighbor (friends, family) to attend church, they are not moved. The things of God which have their place in the life of a believer should have a place at all times, in all situations, and in every part of life. You cannot change your foundation daily.
• Replacing a foundation is a huge task & costly! Quite honestly, it involves a total reconstruction by a Master Builder. But this is exactly what Jesus is and does. He will take a life that is full of sin, hurt, pain, and need, and rebuilds it from the foundation up. He will take a church that has lost her way – and remake the foundation – His foundation.
3) THE DESIGNER – Let me remind you that this is a message for God’s children, the born-again, the redeemed, & the adopted. Without believing in & walking with Jesus, the designer of your foundation is the one who, we have been reminded, builds on the shifting sand of Matthew 7.
• Please notice what verse 9 tells us. We are told that we are God’s fellow workers. It also says that we are “God’s field” (which mean He is continually working in us. My dad’s dad was a sharecropper & all his family was involved in farming at some level. Here is what I know, the work in the field is never done! There is always something to do. Most of the time it is done, with an eye on the harvest
• So, who or what is your life built on? And who or what is this church built one? If it is built on the flawed, sandy foundation of self-interests, you will discover that the shifting sand ‘shifts’ at very inopportune times. You will think you are doing well & all of a sudden your world will collapse.
• I’m reading the biography of Ron Dunn. After losing his son to suicide, he found himself preaching the right things, but struggling with life things. Through his hurt he has taught us to ask the ‘right question’ during those dark days when, by man’s standards, there is no hope. When you go through a deep hurt like a suicide, the natural question is “WHY” or even “Why Me?” This is the question the world asks because in our “You deserve the best” culture, we have little patience or room in our lives for the valley.
• When your life is on the firm foundation, you have full trust in Jesus, and walk with Him daily, the right question becomes “What Now?” When your foundation is secure, no cracks, creaks, or groans, you know that the one whose army & family you’re in, has you in His hands & He wants the best for you – then you know that whatever you go through today is only clay He will use.
• I ask you, what is the foundation of your life & what is this church’s foundation? It is Our Mission.
